Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the National Health Amendment (Supporting Patient Access to Cheaper Medicines and Other Measures) Bill 2024. This is the enabling legislation to put in place certain healthcare measures that were contained in the 2024-25 budget. Most particularly it includes the $3 billion of new measures as they relate to the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement.

We saw for the first time earlier this month the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement, which was finally agreed between the Minister for Health and Aged Care and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. It followed intense pressure on the government, including by the coalition over the last year, because we are the party that supports community pharmacists, and we believed that the community pharmacists had been done wrong by this government over actions last year in relation to 60-day dispensing. Last year the government—as is true to form for this government—shoved through a measure in relation to double dispensing without any consultation whatsoever with the sector that was going to be most impacted by it. This lack of consultation and the rushed policy that was put forward as a result of that was placing Australians' health care at risk.

Many community pharmacies are small businesses. In fact, just about all community pharmacies are small businesses. What this government was expecting was that around 6,000 small businesses around the country were going to shoulder the costs of the government's policy alone, and we believe that was completely unreasonable. At a time when primary care is in crisis, this government thought it was a good idea to put it at further risk, particularly our frontline primary care: the community pharmacy sector. No-one disputes the benefits of cheaper and easier access to medicine, and the coalition absolutely supports Australians getting access to cheaper medicines, especially while they're enduring this prolonged cost-of-living crisis that has been brought on by the economic mismanagement of this government.

Not only did the government fail to consult with pharmacies before implementing their policy but also they have been running around claiming credit for this policy and the cost-of-living savings that Australians were going to benefit from, when it was being entirely funded by the 6,000 small community pharmacists. So, we called on the government to get back to the table with the community pharmacy sector and negotiate a new Community Pharmacy Agreement to resolve the legitimate concerns that were raised at the time about the mucked-up and botched implementation of 60-day dispensing—because cheaper medicines are no use to any community if their pharmacy closes down.

The new agreement is clear proof that the government has been forced to admit that their initial implementation to 60-day dispensing could and would have seriously impacted Australians who rely on their community pharmacy. The eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement, the 8CPA, will commence on 1 July 2024, in just a few days time, and will provide increased support to pharmacies, with a funding boost of $3 billion for additional measures and a total of $26.5 billion over the five years of the agreement. In the 2024-25 budget the government provided further details around these measures that were agreed to as part of this agreement. They include a new payment to pharmacies to handle and dispense all medicines, worth over $2 billion, which recognises the cost impacts on pharmacies of the botched introduction of the double-dispensing measure in last year's budget. The measures also include a one-year freeze on the PBS for general co-payment and a five-year freeze on indexation of the PBS concessional co-payment. This will result, basically, in the phasing out of the dollar discount that currently can be offered to patients in certain circumstances.

The agreement also acknowledges the coalition's longstanding concerns about access by rural, regional and remote communities to primary care by providing additional funding to the Regional Pharmacy Maintenance Allowance. This additional support hopefully will mitigate our concerns about the viability of community pharmacy, particularly for those in more-remote communities in the bush. The Albanese government's initial plans would have devastated regional communities. As those of us who come from regional Australia know only too well, often the community pharmacist is the only health professional in town, and the loss of a pharmacy in these situations is absolutely catastrophic for that community.

But this bill need never have been drafted; this bill never have needed to be in this place. The distress and uncertainty created by the government's incompetence on this issue need never have happened. The government could have simply spoken to community pharmacists and worked through their legitimate concerns. Instead, they just announced and defended. And in the recent round of Senate estimates we learnt that this double-dispensing policy that the government has heralded as delivering cheaper medicines to Australians has in fact delivered very little financial relief. Also, the department was unable to explain how removing the dollar discount, along with freezing the current price of medicines, will make medicines cheaper, despite the claim that the government is running around making. This government needs to tell Australians the truth: how much have Australians actually saved through the measures that are being put forward by the government compared with how much taxpayers have had to fork out to fix the government's mistakes?

However, the coalition will support this bill, because we support the community pharmacy sector, because the community pharmacy sector provides critical primary care to Australians at the coalface. But we put on the record that these measures came about only because the government has botched its policy implementation and put Australians' primary care and their health care at risk. That's why I'll be moving a second reading amendment to note that this bill is a direct result of the sustained advocacy of community pharmacy, community and of course the support of the coalition. The bill represents the government's recognition that its initial approach to 60-day dispensing would have caused damage to all Australians who rely on their community pharmacy.

It's also important to note that the ink is not even dry on this new Community Pharmacy Agreement but the government is once again undermining our critical community pharmacy sector. They've done so by forcing on community pharmacies another rushed and ill-conceived policy without consultation or support—this time in the implementation of their chaotic vaping policy model, designed through a dirty deal with the Greens. We know community pharmacists do not want to be vape dispensers or disposers or, in the words of the Pharmacy Guild themselves, 'tobacconists and garbologists'.

The contempt of this government for stakeholders seems to know no bounds. The first the pharmacists knew that the government planned for them to be the dumping ground for used vapes was when they heard it in the media. The coalition will always stand up for community pharmacists because we stand up for Australians who rely on the primary care that community pharmacists provide. As the Albanese government continues to undermine the important role of pharmacists in our community, community pharmacists in Australia can be absolutely assured the coalition will not undermine your access to something that is so important. On that point I move:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate notes that:

(a) the measures contained in this bill are only a result of sustained advocacy from the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and other groups with the support of the coalition;

(b) the bill is recognition by the government that its initial approach to 60-day dispensing would have caused damage to all Australians who rely on their local community pharmacist; and

(c) the ink is not even dry on the Eighth Community Pharmacy Agreement and the government is already undermining community pharmacies by foisting a rushed and ill-conceived vaping model on community pharmacies without their consultation or support".